It is often assumed that consumers benefit from the internet because it offers a "long tail" with more variety of products to choose from. However, search costs may block the long tail effect and result in the dominance of superstars. This paper examines the variety hypothesis in the entire...

This paper starts with some basic economic characteristics of data that distinguish them from ordinary goods and services, including non-excludability and non-rivalry, economies of scope in data re-use and aggregation, the social value of data and their role in generating network effects. It...